“I don’t want anyone to go through the same thing that I did," Robert Verni says.Credit:Eddie Jim

“I don’t want anyone to go through the same thing that I did," he said.

"My wife and I lost our home – we will never own our own property ever again. There’s a lot of good operators out there that don’t deserve to lose everything."

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Mr Verni, his wife and her brother bought a bb's Cafe on the Gold Coast for $490,000 from RFG, which also owns the Michel’s Patisserie, Brumby’s, Gloria Jeans, Donut King and Crust Pizza chains.

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After a lifetime working in restaurants, running the cafe as a family was to provide good work/life balance, and it made sense to them to partner with a large franchise like RFG, which would give them buying power, marketing reach and support.

But their business dreams quickly turned into a nightmare. The quality of food they had to buy from RFG deteriorated and customer complaints started to mount, and they had to spend almost $300,000 refurbishing the store and converting it into a Michel's Patisserie.

The store became insolvent and closed in July 2017, with $350,000 owing to the bank.

The report released on Thursday calls for a total overhaul of the franchising system, including new laws, changes to the franchising code, and more enforcement powers for regulators.

Mr Verni backed the report's recommendations. He said his family could have been saved by the proposal for potential new store owners to be given more information - including the wages they'll pay, and the prices and mark-ups on products they have to buy from head office.

My wife and I lost our home - we will never own our own property ever again.

He said he would not have bought his cafe if he'd known the reality of the situation rather than being given "false hope".

"How do you know that a franchisor is not going to support you and act in your best interests, as we were told they would?" he said.

He also supported the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission being empowered to intervene and stop franchisors continually selling stores to new owners after they collapsed.

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RFG quickly put his store back on the market for $300,000 after Mr Verni and his family walked away.

Another of the report's recommendations is for store owners to form their own national association to advocate for their rights, and for a website to be set up that is similar to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's MoneySmart to educate the public about the reality of running a franchise.